On 3 September at 14:00 at the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre soloists of the opera company together with the Mariinsky Chorus and the Mariinsky Orchestra under the baton of Valery Gergiev will dedicate a concert to the memory of the great Russian composer Rodion Shchedrin, who passed away on 29 August.
The programme will open with the first part of the Russian liturgy for a cappella choir The Sealed Angel. Shchedrin was inspired to create this work by Nikolai Leskov’s story of the same name. “There are no direct narrative links with the literary source,” the composer explained, “but Leskov’s central idea – the indestructibility of artistic beauty, the magical, elevating power of art – is something I sought to convey through the language of music. In the story Leskov often cites the opening lines of Old Believers’ chants, and I set some of those texts to music.” The concert will also include Gustav Mahler’s Sixth Symphony.
Rodion Shchedrin and the Mariinsky Theatre were bound by many years of genuine friendship and creative collaboration. Each year the theatre presents a festival on the composer’s birthday; entire subscription series have been devoted to his artistic legacy, and Shchedrin himself was a frequent guest on all of the Mariinsky Theatre’s stages. For the opening of Mariinsky II he composed his large-scale two-act opera The Lefthander, and the same building now houses a chamber hall that bears the name of our great contemporary.
In his later years the Mariinsky Theatre truly became Shchedrin’s home. Today the theatre’s repertoire boasts an unparalleled collection of his works: the ballets The Little Humpbacked Horse, Carmen Suite and Anna Karenina; the operas Dead Souls, The Enchanted Wanderer, The Lefthander, Boyarina Morozova, A Christmas Tale, Not Love Alone and Lolita; as well as numerous symphonic works including Poetoria, The Sealed Angel and The Adventures of the Monkey.
At the heart of Shchedrin’s vivid and original output lies his own libretti, almost always rooted in Russian literary classics. More than any other composer, he succeeded in creating truly Russian music – works in which profound traditions and modernity intertwine, where familiar characters and elements of the national cultural code are given striking new life in musical form.
Throughout September the Mariinsky Theatre will honour the memory of Rodion Shchedrin with performances of his works in all their diversity: the operas Not Love Alone (5 September), Dead Souls (12 September), The Enchanted Wanderer (22 September), Boyarina Morozova (23 September), Lolita (25 September) and The Lefthander (29 September); the third part of the Trumpet Concerto (5 September); and The Sealed Angel in its entirety (28 September).
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